'No worse fate than failure': How pressure to keep up is overwhelming students in elite districts

Tessa Newman, 17 a senior at Naperville North High School, explains the petition she published last spring and the need to change the 'pressure culture' system?affecting teen stress and suicide at?her school. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

Tessa Newman, 17 a senior at Naperville North High School, explains the petition she published last spring and the need to change the 'pressure culture' system?affecting teen stress and suicide at?her school. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

When Naperville North High School student Tessa Newman heard about the suicide of a classmate last school year, she was outraged.

Furious, not at the classmate, but at a culture she said exacerbates the pressure she and many of her fellow students feel. So Tessa took action.

"I was just so angry and overwhelmed, I got on my Chromebook at 2 a.m. and essentially wrote down my feelings," says Tessa, 17, now a senior at the school.

Within days, Tessa had posted a 1,458-word essay on Change.org. The petition, "Naperville North Pressure Culture Must Change," soon went viral, striking a chord nationwide and prompting fierce debate on the topic.

"At Naperville North there is one path to success," Tessa wrote in the piece. "From the age of 13, every prospective Naperville North student understands that this path makes no exceptions, and those who wander off or fall behind are left for failure. Everyone here understands that there is no worse fate than failure."

Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune

Students study for final exams at Hinsdale Public Library on May 27, 2017.

Students study for final exams at Hinsdale Public Library on May 27, 2017.

(Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

If nothing else, the essay and the response it generated show how much the topic of student stress and educational anxiety is on the minds of kids, parents, teachers, counselors and administrators — some of whom are calling it a burgeoning mental-health crisis.

"When I first wrote the essay, it wasn't meant to be shared, but I knew I had something important to say," Tessa said. "I thought to myself, 'if I don't do it, who will?'"

But Tessa — and her fellow students at Naperville North — aren't alone. High-performing teens at elite public high schools criss-crossing the suburbs, from Highland Park to Hinsdale, and La Grange to Lake Forest, are feeling the same strain.

"Many parents want their children to either meet or surpass what they have achieved, but there's not a whole lot of room to surpass the success of a parent who is a CEO of a Fortune 500 company," said Timothy Hayes, assistant superintendent of student services at New Trier High School.

For months, the Pioneer Press has explored the problem of student anxiety and school-related stress. Reporters spoke to students, parents, administrators and public health experts and examined school data on topics ranging from how often kids are sidestepping gym class to how many request school counseling services.

The research showed a pervasive, increasing and potentially dangerous problem that impacts every aspect of students' lives — from their emotional and physical health to their future college and career paths.

In many top-performing schools, students and experts describe an atmosphere of intense, sometimes disabling, pressure connected with test scores, college admissions and AP course loads.

Those interviewed say the issue clearly is not comparable to the trauma and stress felt by students in violent or impoverished neighborhoods. But, the experts argue, academic anxiety has real consequences.

Parents are sending their kids to therapeutic day schools at hospitals that treat adolescent mental health issues. Teachers are changing their curriculum to factor in students' anxiety and stress. And kids are facing what they say is a constant, grinding strain throughout their academic careers.

"There is a double-edged sword. We want kids to challenge themselves, but not at the expense of their mental well-being," said Emily Polacek, a social studies teacher at Hinsdale South High School in west suburban Darien.

Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune

A display case acknowledging mental illness is seen in a hallway at Hersey High School on April 28, 2017 in Arlington Heights.

A display case acknowledging mental illness is seen in a hallway at Hersey High School on April 28, 2017 in Arlington Heights.

(Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

'Falling apart'

Tom Koulentes, a former principal at Highland Park High School, said that a decade ago, the North Shore school had roughly 10 students a year hospitalized for mental health issues of all kinds.

Now, he estimates, that number is closer to 60 to 70 a year — and climbing.

"And that's just hospitalizations," said Koulentes, now principal of Libertyville High School. "There are a larger number of parents calling who have significant concerns because their children are falling apart at home."

Public records also reveal a sharp uptick in demand for counseling services at some high schools.

In Highland Park, officials report the number of students participating in various types of support groups through the high school's drop-in center rose 58 percent in five years, from 164 students in 2011-12 to 260 students in 2015-16. The school currently has 2,026 students enrolled.

And officials said 75 percent of students who received individual or group counseling at the high school during the 2015-16 year reported issues of anxiety, up from 35 percent five years earlier.

The same trend is evident at north suburban Deerfield High School, where 73 percent of students who received individual counseling from a social worker or psychologist were experiencing anxiety issues, according to school data.

There is a double-edged sword. We want kids to challenge themselves, but not at the expense of their mental well-being.— Emily Polacek, social studies teacher at Hinsdale South High School

Officials at both schools say the primary causes of unhealthy stress vary among students and can include not only academic anxiety, but also worries about family problems and social situations.

But officials say there are some common threads. Many teens are experiencing a lack of sleep, increasingly rigorous college prep courses, several hours of homework a night and the demands of juggling the multiple extracurricular activities required to burnish college applications.

"So now, everyone is taking the hardest classes, but it's not just grades, because they're told they not only have to be involved in clubs and sports, but they need to be the leader or captain," Koulentes said. "And they also need a high test score on the ACT and SAT."

Koulentes says that can mean some teens are in class from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., followed by sports, music or other extracurriculars until 7 p.m. After that, it's an evening ACT or SAT prep session.

And the problem isn't all grades and class rankings. Technology has emerged as a new stressor for kids, and administrators are finding it challenging to tackle.

Koulentes said with the expectation that grades will be updated on a digital portal and that email will be answered 24/7, students and teachers are finding it harder and harder to decompress, even on the weekends.

"A child gets a test back in math class, and they find out they got a 'D,' so they text mom and dad, even before the teacher has walked back to their desk," Koulentes said.

Not to mention the set of ultra-competitive teens shooting for Ivy League schools. They're feeling compelled to launch nonprofits, apply for patents or develop new apps, he said.

"I've had conversations with former students who have told me, 'College is actually easier than high school,'" Koulentes said. "In high school, they're dealing with hard, hard classes, and then they have three, four or more hours of homework each night."

Data from area school districts also show increasing numbers of students taking Advanced Placement classes, with many of the kids taking several AP courses at once.

In Illinois, the number of high school students participating in Advance Placement classes is rising. Locally, the total number of AP classes taken by graduates who took at least one AP course continues to inch up.

One example of this trend is Adlai Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, where the proportion of students taking AP courses has been steadily on the rise. While about 55 percent of Stevenson juniors were enrolled in at least one AP course in 2011-12, the percentage stood at 71 percent during the 2015-16 year, school data shows. About half of all sophomore students were enrolled in an AP course in 2015-16. Among seniors, the figure was about 82 percent.

Data from other area school districts are in line with that growth, and show both the overall number of students taking AP courses and the number of AP classes in which they are enrolled increasing.

'Really startling'

Scientists have begun recognizing the issues, with both stress and anxiety the focus of national research.

At Yale, psychology professor B.J. Casey is the director of its Fundamentals of the Adolescent Brain Lab. She said roughly one in four teens between the ages of 13 and 17 meet the criteria for having an anxiety disorder.

"When you look at the fact that in Australia, it's only 7 percent of teens with anxiety, compared to 25 percent in the U.S., it's really startling," Casey said.

Casey said there are significant changes going on in the teen brain during adolescence, as the different parts and functions of the brain take time to mature and fine-tune.

When a teen is under stress, the emotional part of the brain "hijacks" the pre-frontal cortex, or rational, cognitive part of their brain, that helps someone pause and think before acting, Casey said.

Casey compares the rational part of the brain to the logical Spock from "Star Trek," saying the emotional part of the brain is more like the passionate and impulsive Captain Kirk.

"When the brain's circuitry is not fully developed, the logical part of the brain can't talk back to the emotional part, to tell it to calm down, things will be different tomorrow," Casey said.

Casey does say, though, that stress can have at least one positive result — it can end up making teens more resilient.

"It's so important for teens to learn how to cope, and to learn how to fail," she said.

In that vein, some argue that stress and anxiety are part of growing up, and that officials at elite schools shouldn't lower academic standards but should push for even more achievement.

Steve Deutsch, a longtime Naperville School District 203 activist, is one of those who say students of every era have vented about the pressures they face.

In the incidents at Naperville North this year — which included student suicides and Tessa Newman's petition — Deutsch said the events shouldn't be automatically blamed on academic pressure.

"It is too soon, and hardly conclusive, to use these incidents as an indication for wholesale or immediate change," Deutsch said.

Michelle Fregoso, director of communications in Naperville School District 203, said the district always has listened to concerns raised by anyone in the community.

Timothy Hayes, assistant superintendent of student services at New Trier High School, said a recent "Stressed Out at New Trier" event was aimed at expanding the conversation, and talking about the many ways stress can impact a kid's life.

"We've been talking about stress at New Trier now for many years, and from our perspective, stress can be both positive and negative," Hayes said.

For example, Hayes said, stress before an athletic competition or taking an exam can be beneficial if it helps students perform better. But he said stress can have a negative impact on teens if it affects them in a physical way — for example, leaving them sleep-deprived and not eating well.

Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune

Stevenson High School students run laps during physical education class in Lincolnshire on May 11, 2017. About 29 percent of students at Stevenson had physical education waivers in recent years. Some believe the lack of exercise and going without a break from academic course work adds to teen stress and anxiety.

Stevenson High School students run laps during physical education class in Lincolnshire on May 11, 2017. About 29 percent of students at Stevenson had physical education waivers in recent years. Some believe the lack of exercise and going without a break from academic course work adds to teen stress and anxiety.

(Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

Hayes said officials at the high school base some of their decision-making on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which asks students to describe their primary sources of stress.

"Not surprisingly, academics is always at the top," Hayes said. "We have to ask ourselves, 'What do we do?' But there's always going to be some level of stress."

Hayes said officials a few years ago considered mandating that every student have at least one open period in their schedule. Community response, though, wasn't what they expected.

"The push-back was pretty intense, and kids and parents told us they wanted a choice," Hayes said. He said there are special challenges with New Trier students, some of whom have parents who are wealthy, accomplished — or both.

Still, Hayes said it's not fair to blame successful parents with high expectations as the cause of their teen's academic anxiety.

"I get this self-imposed stress, because kids naturally want to make their parents proud," Hayes said. "We believe every kid should go to college, which is not necessarily a bad thing. But the downside is, it isn't really the right plan for every kid to go straight from high school to college if they are just following what they think they should do, and haven't really thought about why."

'Stressed to death'

Polacek, who also teaches AP psychology at Hinsdale South, said the stress can start to simmer in the fall, months before students take their spring AP exams.

"They're stressed by October," Polacek said. "That's when they realize, 'I'm in over my head.'"

"The reading level is harder in an AP class, because the reading is the level of a college textbook. And we have to get through the entire textbook by April, so we have time to review," Polacek said.

It's not just the AP class, she said, but the AP workload combined with the work in all their other classes.

"Some kids can take seven AP classes and benefit," she said. "The (question) is, are we trying to push more people into AP classes, who may not be ready for it?"

The increase in school-related stress and anxiety among teens is apparent to Beth Sosler, a Highland Park High School parent who tutors high school students.

"We've seen more and more students with diagnosed or undiagnosed anxiety," Sosler said. "We are seeing more and more students being tutored for classes they are not ready for, but feel the pressure to be in."

Sosler said kids are feeling pushed to take harder classes and do more. And if they don't load up their schedules with AP classes, they worry they're not doing enough or keeping up with their high-achieving peers.

We are seeing more and more students being tutored for classes they are not ready for, but feel the pressure to be in.— Beth Sosler, Highland Park High School parent tutor

But while high schools are putting more emphasis on AP courses, Sosler says more colleges have stopped awarding credit because they are finding students are not prepared to take the next level of the course in college.

"Why aren't they ready?" she asked. "Probably because in high school, there is so much pressure that they are just going through the motions. High school has come down to, 'What boxes do I need to check for college?' Students are learning what they need to learn to take the test, spit it out and move on. They are not learning what they need to learn to be at the next level."

Sosler said while it's entirely appropriate for some students to take the hardest classes offered, and push themselves to earn high marks, it ends up putting pressure on many other students who feel they're falling behind the pack.

"What is happening is, you have students who are in over their heads," Sosler said. "They are stressed to death."

Freshmen are told on one hand not to worry about college, then given an early version of a college entrance exam three weeks into their first year of high school, she said.

"There has always been a very small faction of high-achieving students and parents who say the school isn't doing enough to get students into Ivy League colleges," Sosler said.

"The truth of the matter is, our school is offering every opportunity for students whose goal of attending an Ivy League school is appropriate," she said.

The reason more Highland Park students aren't getting accepted at Ivy League schools is that very few students anywhere are, she said.

Of the nearly 40,000 students who applied to Harvard University last year, just 5.2 percent were admitted, according to the school.

The fallout

Despite the best efforts of school officials and parents, for teens who struggle with chronic stress and anxiety, experts say the emotional pain and physical symptoms can prove incapacitating.

Dr. Carol Weitzman, a pediatrician, researcher and a professor of pediatrics at Yale, says somatic complaints from teens — which include stomachaches, headaches and difficulty breathing — often are the early signs of anxiety. A visit to the family pediatrician is typically the first step many parents take when trying to figure out what's wrong.

In parents' nightmares, the end result of all of this stress is a student who feels no other option than to end his or her life. Experts, however, caution that the causes of suicide are not simple nor are they easily determined, and typically stem from a serious mental illness.

But Naperville North student Tessa Newman, the author of the online essay and petition, said a competitive culture, combined with pressure to be perfect, can help usher some kids to dark places.

"What we keep hearing from the high school is that it's inherently all about students' mental health problems, not about the system," Tessa said, adding: "I started my petition because I believe that a lot of students' mental health problems are actually caused by the system."